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This afternoon, DCPS released final details of the budget reductions that have caused an uproar in the schools community since probable staff cuts were first announced last month.
In total, 388 employees will be let go across the District, 229 of whom are teachers. According to a DCPS release, "60 percent of schools will lose one or zero teachers and 80 percent of schools will lose two or less." Twelve campuses lost five or more teachers, mostly likely schools that failed to meet projected enrollment. Employees affected received notice today, and will be placed on paid administrative leave until November 2, when their employment will end.
The total budget shortfall for FY2010 was $43.9 million, which the official DCPS line blames on an "unanticipated D.C. Council budget reduction, additional school level resources that in previous years the central office was able to carry on its budget, and $3.5M in leave and severance." Cuts made centrally totaled $13.1 million (including the elimination of the school ombudsman's office), with the remainder coming from school-level reductions.
Coming so soon after the start of the school year, the budget reductions have inflamed already tense relations between the Chancellor's office, the Council, and teacher advocates. In the Post today, Bill Turque summarized the controversy over the cuts, which sparked angry reactions from the Washington Teachers Union and some protests by students and teachers. Council Chairman Vincent Gray has also suggested that the cuts were unnecessary, and has accused schools chancellor Michelle Rhee of using the Council as a scapegoat.
Rhee has faced accusations of using the cuts as an excuse to fire older or minority teachers. She has denied that the cuts were anticipated, or part of a master plan to eliminate teachers, but has also acknowledged that the cutbacks are "an opportunity to rid the system of teachers she considers underperforming," even perhaps including some veteran educators. As Rhee told Post editors last week, "I'm trying to figure out how to manage the realities in a way that will benefit kids. As we are having to downsize staff are we [looking at] people who add the least value? Absolutely."
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According to a DCPS release, "60 percent of schools will lose one or zero teachers and 80 percent of schools will lose two or less."
That should be "two or fewer."
Clearly, they can't really afford to lose any teachers.
She has denied that the cuts were anticipated, or part of a master plan to eliminate teachers, but has also acknowledged that the cutbacks are "an opportunity to rid the system of teachers she considers underperforming,"
Is this a quote from Rhee? Has she taken to referring to herself in the third person?
Heard first-hand account of teachers being escorted from classrooms by police officers in front of their students.
Also, that the security contractor was fired, and there was no security presence across DCPS today - except of course for the officers escorting out the RIFed teachers.
If true - why would they feel the need escort teachers from the building when they've been fired on a Friday? Why not just let them work the remainder of the afternoon? I'm confused.
Working til the end of the day after being fired? Seriously? Would you?
But actually, you raise a good point.
DCPS effed up the process and put their principals in difficult and potentially unsafe positions -- unsafe to themselves, the students and the remaining staff. This could have and should have been handled much, much better -- if only those people Rhee hired could translate all their theoretical ivy league knowledge into practical and humanistic applications. You don't force a principal to fire a large group of people during the school day. And you certainly don't make them do it on a day when you know there won't be any security. Maybe if Rhee had spent little more than her rookie years at a school, she'd know the intricacies of how they operate.
Thank god the MPD was available to be at my school, that's all I can say.
There is another way to look at this. Why not view allowing principals to determine which positions to cut as empowering principals? I mean, wouldn't you want a chancellor who defers to principals on staff matters as much as possible?
Empowering principals is definitely the way to go. However, while Rhee talks that talk, she doesn't walk the walk. She/her staff routinely overrides principal decisions.
Our principal had no say in how this was rolled out and was provided with no logistical support in terms of how to remove nearly 20% of our building staff, during a school day, with no security, while ensuring the dignity of the removed staff and the security of those in the building. Remember, this was supposed to happen on Wednesday. Why didn't it? Because 825 didn't have a clue how to do this. They had no plan by Wednesday. Why not? Because they don't know what they don't know.
And I support Rhee, if you can believe that...
DCPS was not paying Hawk One on a consistent basis. Rhee commented that she did not anticipate this... why not? Isn't it her job to know? Our Principal told us Friday that on Monday our security officers alerted him to the situation and that they would not be in on Friday. Peep this letter from them --> http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/Files/downloads/ABOUT%20DCPS/Announcements/Hawk%20One%20DCPS%20Notification%2010%201%202009.pdf
Not true, and not even funny.
Hawk ONE may have been useless, but they weren't fired. The company went under due to a combination of bad timing and bad management. LATE yesterday they sent a letter saying they couldn't fulfill their obligations, which left DCPS in the lurch.
On the other hand, DCPS was already in transition to another security service, so this simply accelerated the process. MPD was on duty at my daughter's school this morning (first time my ID was checked all year) and by the time I got back home and off to work DCPS had robocalled to explain it all.
By Monday the incoming service will be working. The DCPS site has the Hawk ONE letter and other details, if you're actually interested...
Our school had no such drama. The principal wasn't thrilled with having to decide which staff to staff go, but I do imagine that less-than-thrilling feeling would have been much more intense if the decision on who to let go was top-down from 825.
Bad timing on the rent-a-cop thing, nice to see it was coordinated enough that MPD stepped in.
Oops. Sorry. That should have been a follow up to KittyLiteral
By any means necessary get rid of the lousy teachers. It is so unfair to the children that we condemn them to these horrible teachers for the sake of saving a job.
This is Rhee's letter to the DCPS Staff with respect to the reduction in force:
http://tinyurl.com/y9f8djv
amen, mommyworks!
The total budget shortfall for FY2010 was $43.9 million...
Is this the projected shortfall, as FY2010 hasn't happened yet?
Also, it's common practice to escort someone who has been fired from the workplace, like it or not.
Go Rhee.
FY2010 begins October 1, 2009.
Ouch. If they were already looking to dump staff, they couldn't have done it before the school year started? she could have at least given them a chance to find another job for the school year.
WTU has Rhee's hands tied. The bad economy is helping her get rid of the termite excrement that passes for some teachers in the DCPS system. It would be offensive to wood to call some of these people dead wood. As far as I know the 6 new teachers hired over the summer at my kid's school retained their positions. I don't think that this was ever a matter of not hiring the new personnel but of getting rid of the old ones who are not proficient but are tenured.
as one of the people who has to deal with the kids who do manage to graduate and get into college, this is terrible news. some of the kids can hardly read well enough to handle a college reading load already... fewer teachers will only exacerbate the problem...
Its not about volume of teachers, its about quality of teaching. Yes there are many factors involved not the least of which is home life and economic status but one thing that can be controlled and should be controlled are the teachers and the quality of instruction. At least on paper cuts are aimed at un-certified poorly performing teachers whose work product you are left to sort. If quality teachers are retained then the kids will do at least better if not eventually well.
Dcps principals were given days to evaluate teachers... I do not think the process properly reflects the effectiveness of teachers. How do you judge the newly hired teachers or are they given a free pass dying te RIF? I am not saying that a house cleaning didn't need to be done, just questioning the method and haste.
900 new teachers hired during the summer and a larger dcps beget than previous years... Then 388 staffers get fired a month into the year... Something doesn't add up.
Also, some teacher "reassigned" last year, didn't receive perminent placement before the summer hirings.
*budget
I wouldn't be surprised if the Pink Slips were written: Ur Fi Erd (for the benefit of the recipient, of course).
Get back on the short bus, Liz.
Also, nice to know that even as they're firing teachers, there are still job openings on the DCPS website for $107,000 a year admin positions with nice pointless titles like "Transformation Team Leader" and "Deputy Assistant Piss Boy."
Yes, Rhee is giving more autonomy to the principals. That is why Rhee dictated which teachers were to be fired to the principals and then gave the principals a script to read to the fired teachers. Autonomy Rhee style.
Not true at my school. I can't speak for all of them. But I do find it hard to believe "Rhee" personally knows and gives a thumbs up/down to every teacher in the system...
"I'm trying to figure out how to manage the realities in a way that will benefit kids. As we are having to downsize staff are we [looking at] people who add the least value? Absolutely."
Wow, nothing is going to piss off the unions more than actually demanding teachers perform!
I think we lost 14 of our staff members on Friday. I know it was more than 10. It has yet to be communicated exactly who was let go and what will happen to those classes/students. I guess we will find out on Monday. We did not have under-performing staff members at our school. Maybe 2. The rest were just victims of the budget discrepancy. Why were so many new teachers hired at the start of the year? I read in a few places it was 900!! 4 years ago when I was hired, there were 185 new hires and it took a month for me to be placed because they had over-hired... I didn't get paid for the time I wasn't working and it took over 2 months to get my first pay check.
Claro, DCPS should have checked with DCist commenters, because there is an astonishing number of education administration experts among them.
Not that you all don't make great points. But really, snore.
I tutor one of the students as McKinley and frankly I was appalled.
From what I under McKinley was one of the schools that was underenrolled (by about 30 I think) but they got rid of the SAT prep teacher and three guidance counselors (and there may have only been 3). If I was a student that had hopes of college then basically the picture I would have after this is why bother coming to school on Monday.
I was told (meaning I can't verify) that the principle was assigned the task of coming up with the list for their respective list and if so, I would seriously doubt that Rhee looked at the list - she left all decisions with them as they would know and she is to senior for that kind of petty shit. Of course she seems to think that all the principles actually know what they are doing. And you can't tell me that those schools where there were many fired - like McKinley - have plans in place to cover all those let go.
This was handled badly. Who fires teachers mid school day? You wait until the end of the day and have a special meeting. Students (WITH CELLPHONES) had plenty of time to call home and there was plenty of time for everyone to get riled up. Whoever came up with this plan should be suspended, reprimanded, or fired. They are lucky things weren't worse.
Watch this video and go to the rally at Freedom Plaza this Thursday at 4:30
http://dc.indymedia.org/usermedia/video/3/proteacherrallycalltoaction.mov
where's the 'pro-student rally call to action'?
My sister, who has both a recent Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Early Childhood Education, was let go on Friday. She was a new hire, yes, but the ONLY Third grade teacher at the school. Without any warning and/or notice, these 20 3rd graders will have gone to school this morning to find out they'd be moving to either 2nd or 4th grade. In the end, this mostly hurts the children, not the teachers who were laid off.
Additionally, my sister created a life for herself in DC in just the past 8 weeks. She signed a lease for an apartment, purchased school supplies, paid for a DC teaching license, all things for which she will not receive reimbursement. It was unfair to hire her in the first place since it wasn't as if the budget shortfall was just discovered last week.
Aren't budgets created way in advance? And, in the end, my question is: what the heck ARE my taxes going to? Funding schools without 3rd grade? Fixing potholes? Seriously.
The Pro Student Rally is this Thursday, October 8, Freedom Plaza at 4:30 PM. I say this because I know of no quality school system, you know the kind, where almost all the kids graduate and many of them go on to college, etc., that treats its teachers as badly as DCPS. Change that part of the equation and see what happens. Pay them properly, and see what kind of quality teachers the system might attract. So you have too many teachers for the number of students? Fine, move some of those excess good teachers to schools that are struggling. Rhee hasn't done this. Otherwise, Deal Middle School, one of the best in the city, would not have lost a highly qualified, highly effective, 16-year veteran, a month into the school year, knowing full well that his wife is about to give birth. Hopefully, he'll find a position (yeah right, a month after the school year starts) in a better system that will treat him properly. But in the meantime, how does this help the students? An isolated incident you say? I don't think so. Go to the Rally and talk to students, talk to the teachers, and find out for yourself. End rant. Well, maybe just a short rant, post rant. I used to teach afterschool programs mostly in troubled schools. I can tell you, it is perfectly plausible to be a brilliant teacher in one school, with one set of students, and feel like nothing more than a cop in another. Move some of these so-called unqualified teachers into well performing schools and some of these excellent teachers from excellent schools into, I don't know, Ballou or Anacostia and let's see what happens. I'm sick of the teacher bashing. I know it never comes from teachers. And it won't serve the students. Okay, end rant.